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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RoseCampion who wrote (40943)	9/14/1999 12:16:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

From Yahoo> broker from Oppenheimer and he says they put a Strong Buy on the stock today with a price target of 250. Now this is a great Q day.

To: RoseCampion who wrote (40943)	9/14/1999 12:51:00 PM
From: Peter J Hudson	Respond to of 152472

All, My guess is that they are just going to outsource the manufacturing process. Manufacturing is a cut throat operation that requires maximum efficiencies in all aspects. San Diego isn't the right location for maximum efficiency. The cost of factory space and the cost of local labor are very high. I don't believe Dr. J ever wanted to be in the manufacturing business, he had to go there to jump start the technology. It has been obvious for some time that Qualcomm was doing little to increase their production capacity outside of existing facilities, no new plants. The sad fact is that production line employees are a long term liability. My guess is that there will be another substantial one time charge to pay for severance packages. The business plan is to focus on high margin activities. The future looks great. Pete

To: RoseCampion who wrote (40943)	9/14/1999 1:21:00 PM
From: mauser96	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Qualcomm may be in a similar position to AT&T prior to the spin off of Lucent. This spin off was very successful because AT&T competitors could buy Lucent products without enriching their competitor. Personally, I don't think that QCOM should continue putting money in a low margin business that will likely be captured eventually by the Japanese and Koreans. If they can do it with almost every other consumer electronic product, why not cell phones? Eventually mobile phones will become more of a commodity, and the closer they get to this point the more market share will be taken by companies like Sony. According to a recent Solomon Smith Barney report this would also be the most profitable outcome for the Q. The big profits are in royalties,licenses and ASIC sales. Like the infrastructure business, the manufacturing business has served it's purpose and it's time for QCOM to move on. Subcontracting out manufacturing wouldn't alter the fact that everytime a company like Nokia buys a chip from QCOM , they are enriching a direct competitor in mobile phones.